In this seventh episode of Radio Show Me What Democracy Looks Like , we think about both “The People” and people in the visual culture of democracy, Apostolos Georgiou’s Untitled (2016) and all those people who at some point, in some place, in some way reacted to what was putting them down by posing thousands of questions.
“The People” and people in democratic visual culture
Apostolos Georgiou Untitled (2016)
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“My name is Costas, and the year is 1950, it could also be the sixties or eighties, 2000 or later—I’m not sure about the date, actually. Who are these men and women around me, all of them so disquieted? I am not sure about them, either. I usually wear a suit to keep myself in check, but I don’t always succeed. I could be the antihero from next door, the archetype of the oppressed man, the betrayed citizen, or maybe, I am a figure in the paintings of Apostolos Georgiou, born in Thessaloniki, in 1952 …”
Cats, People and more Cats: Apostolos Georgiou in Exergue on documenta 14
Musical Outro: Taylor Swift (feat. Post Malone) Fortnight (2024)
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I always imagined that “Fortnight” took place in this American town where the American dream you thought would happen to you didn’t.
• Taylor Swift
Footnote on all those people who at some point, in some place, in some way reacted to what was putting them down by posing thousands of questions
What do you propose? The question, what do you propose, imbued with heroic sound, has been almost universal since the late 80s. When the neoliberal tax collectors managed to prevail ideologically and practically, almost no one would take them seriously. There is something ridiculous about the question, namely, what do you propose to get us out of the crisis. Because anything you propose stumbles over millions of pre-existing commitments and structures that are treated as sacred, such as the markets. So, you assume that you cannot touch them and should respect them. So the question, what do you propose, does not contain the answer that you cannot propose anything, because this is the situation. This has always been the situation, this will always be the situation and it does not change at all. Trying to give a comprehensive answer to this question, I have wrung my brain. Of course, it is not easy to implement a comprehensive, workable and fair program as an alternative to the dictatorship of the markets and the indisputable right of the bankers. After reading thousands of books and endless hours of thinking, as well as fruitful dialogue with prominent personalities, I think he has finally arrived at a comprehensive proposal that definitively answers the ironic question. So what do you propose?
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